City Hall Tories call for trial of gunfire alarms

Mr Evans says the detectors would help increase police response times.Conservatives on the London Assembly have called on Boris Johnson and the Met Police to trial the use of gunfire alarms at ‘soft’ terror targets such as hospitals, museums and train stations.

The alarms, which use heat and sound to detect gunfire, automatically alert police if any shots are fired and are currently being trialled in the US.

Assembly Member Roger Evans says introducing them in London could help the Met cut response times for armed officers and has written to the Mayor, Met Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe and Home Secretary Theresa May, urging a UK-wide pilot at 50 undisclosed public sites.

Mr Evans said: “An alarm system detecting gunfire would automatically alert authorities to a live incident. It would remove the need to make emergency calls in the first place, cutting response times by several minutes and saving lives in the process.

“Furthermore, the system would be unintrusive – reducing the need for heavy metal detectors, x-ray machines or an on-going armed presence.”